Trump Team Still Debating Timing of Mideast Peace Plan

[maybetoday]

TRUMP TEAM STILL DEBATING TIMING OF MIDEAST PEACE PLAN RELEASE

The plan is all but complete, sources say.

BY MICHAEL WILNER MAY 19, 2018 00:24




WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will unveil its plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace some time in the coming weeks and months, but no decision has been made as to the precise timing of its release, two US sources told The Jerusalem Post on Friday.



Trump administration officials were responding to an article in the Associated Press reporting that the plan would go public some time in mid to late June, barring any unexpected crisis.



Israeli officials have previously signaled to the Post that they expect the US plan would come down shortly after the opening of the new American embassy in Jerusalem, which took place earlier this week.



For weeks, White House officials have said their plan is nearly complete, and that they are simply waiting for the right time to sell it.



"Reports that a decision has been made on when to release the plan are false," a National Security Council spokesperson said. The team, the official added, is "finishing the plan and will be releasing it when the time and circumstances are right." The near-finished plan is the product of a year long policy initiative by President Donald Trump's "peace team"– led by Jared Kushner, his son-in-law; Jason Greenblatt, his special representative for international negotiations; and David Friedman, his ambassador to Israel– to come up with a comprehensive solution to the storied conflict. The document includes detailed proposals addressing core disagreements amongst Israelis and Palestinians.



That is a departure from past US peace initiatives, which left details of a deal up to the parties to negotiate, and instead offered "frameworks" and "road maps" to an agreement.



Past administrations have also explicitly endorsed a two-state solution to the conflict, resulting in two nations for two peoples– one Jewish, and one Arab. Officials have told the Post that the product of the Trump plan would ultimately result in sovereignty for the Palestinians, but that the document itself is not likely to include "two state" language.



It is not clear whether the plan will be published in its entirety, or parts of the plan will be kept private. Regardless, the Trump team has already begun briefing allies on its contents, according to the Associated Press report.



Officials in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government are braced for a plan that will require Israeli concessions, since Trump said in recent months in person and on Twitter that his decision to move the embassy there from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem put them in his debt.





Donald J. Trump

✔

@realdonaldtrump

2 Jan

It's not only Pakistan that we pay billions of dollars to for nothing, but also many other countries, and others. As an example, we pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue...





Donald J. Trump

✔

@realdonaldtrump

...peace treaty with Israel. We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?



18:37 - 2 Jan 2018

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​"We're hopeful we've had enough conversations with them that they wouldn't breach our fundamental security needs– our red lines," an Israeli official told the Post. "We'd be very surprised if that were the case."



Palestinian envoy to Washington, Husam Zomlot, said last week that the PLO will give the US peace team a fair hearing once their plan is revealed. But Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said repeatedly that he wrote off the Trump administration as a fair arbiter of the peace process when it decided to move its embassy and to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.



The PA has shut down contact with the White House ever since.



The fate of Jerusalem is one of the most contested points of disagreement amongst Israelis and Palestinians. Trump administration officials say their decision to relocate the US embassy there– on the west side of the city– has no bearing on the future of the ancient city, which Israelis want to keep under their full control, and which Palestinians want to divide.



The peace team hopes that Arab allies can convince PA leadership to give their plan a fair shot– and perhaps of the merits of the proposals themselves. Several of those allies have been critical of Trump's embassy move in recent weeks, but on a recent tour of the US, Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Muhammad bin Salman, indicated that he would pressure the Palestinians to accept whatever Trump has to offer.



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